CONFERENCIA MAGISTRAL 3:
LA LITERATURA
COMO UNA CASA
HOSPITALARIA
/ master conference 3:
LITERATURE AS A
HOSPITABLE HOME
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
Naci en Arroyo Cabral, en 1954. Es narradora, ensayista y promotora
de la lectura. Ganadora del Premio Hans Christian Andersen en 2012,
Mara Teresa Andruetto es una de las narradoras ms importantes de
la literatura infantil y juvenil.
Hija de inmigrantes italianos, motivo que detona su novela Stefano,
Mara Teresa Andruetto es una autora prolfica que ha dedicado su vida
a la literatura para nios y jvenes. Comenz su ascendente carrera en
1992, con su novela Tama, con la que obtuvo el Premio Municipal Luis
de Tejeda, premio que deton la publicacin de varias novelas como
Veladuras (Norma, 2005), La Mujer en Cuestin (DeBolsillo 2009), o
libros de cuentos como Todo Movimiento es Cacera (Alcin, 2002) o
los libros de poemas Palabras al rescoldo (Argos, 1993), Beatriz (Argos,
2005), Pavese/Kodak (Ediciones del dock, 2008), Sueo Americano
(Caballo negro editora, 2009) y Tendedero (CILC, 2009); la obra de
teatro Enero (Ferreyra editor, 2005) y numerosos libros para nios y
jvenes, entre otros El anillo encantado (Sudamericana, 1993), Huellas
en la arena (Sudamericana, 1998), La mujer vampiro (Sudamericana,
2000), El rbol de lilas (Comunicarte, 2006) y El incendio (El Eclipse,
2008). Reuni su experiencia en talleres de escritura en dos libros
realizados en colaboracin, La escritura en el taller (Anaya, 2008) y El
taller de escritura en la escuela (Comunicarte, 2010) y sus reflexiones
en Hacia una literatura sin adjetivos (Comunicarte, 2009).
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
Andruetto was born in Arroyo Cabral in 1954. She is a storyteller,
essayist and a promoter of reading. She was the winner of the Hans
Christian Andersen Award in 2012 and is considered one of the most
important narrators of childrens literature.
Daughter of Italian immigrants, which sparked her novel Stefano,
Maria Teresa Andruetto is a prolific author who has devoted her life
to childrens and youth literature. She began her rising career in 1992
with her novel Tama, with which she won the Municipal Luis de Tejeda
award. This prize triggered the publishing of several other novels such
as Veladuras (Norma, 2005), La Mujer en Cuestin (The Woman in
Question) (DeBolsillo, 2009), or compilations of short stories such
asTodo Movimiento es Cacera (All Movement is a Hunt) (Alcyone,
2002). She also has published books of poems such as Palabras
al rescoldo (Words to the Embers) (Argos, 1993), Beatriz (Argos,
2005), Pavese/ Kodak (Dock Editions, 2008), SueoAmericano
(American Dream) (Caballo Negro Editions, 2009) and Tendedero
(The Clothes Line) (CICL, 2009); the play Enero (January) (Ferreyra
Editions, 2005) and numerous childrens books including, El anillo
encantado (The Enchanted Ring)(Sudamericana, 1993), Huellas en
la arena (Footprints in the Sand) (Sudamericana, 1998), La mujer
vampiro (The Vampire Woman) (Sudamericana, 2000), El rbol
de lilas (The Lilac Tree) (Comunicarte, 2006) and El incendio (The
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MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
Ha sido finalista del Premio Rmulo Gallegos por su novela Lengua
Madre (2001) y ganadora del Premio Iberoamericano SM de Literatura
Infantil y juvenil (2010), El Premio Novela del Fondo Nacional de las
Artes, el White Ravens de la Internacional Jugendbibliothek, Lista de
Honor de IBBY, entre muchos ms.
Andruetto destaca como escritora por su gran sensibilidad y
preocupacin para que se preserve la experiencia literaria como un
ejercicio de libertad del que nadie debe estar excluido. Por ello, ha estado
ligada a la lectura en todas sus vertientes: desde hace ms de treinta
aos ha luchado por el derecho a la lectura en los nios, trabajando en
la formacin de profesores en promocin lectora y escritura creativa,
estructurando planes de lectura municipales y nacionales como
el PROPALE (Programa para la Lectura/Universidad Nacional de
Crdoba), as como docente. A la par, fue una de las fundadoras de
CEDILIJ (Centro de Difusin e Investigacin de Literatura Infantil y
Juvenil en Crdoba).
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
Fire) (The Eclipse, 2008). She culminated her experience in writing
workshops and published two books produced in collaboration, La
escritura en el taller (Writing in the Workshop)(Anaya, 2008) and El
taller de escritura en la escuela (The Writing Workshop in School)
(Comunicarte, 2010) and her reflections in Hacia una literatura sin
adjetivos (Towards a Literature without Adjectives) (Comunicarte,
2009).
She was a finalist of the Rmulo Gallegos Prize for her novel Lengua
Madre (Mother Tongue) (2001) and winner of the SM Childrens
and Youth Latin American Literature Award (2010), the National
Endowment for the Arts Novel Prize, the White Ravens of the Jugen-
dbibliothek International, the IBBY Honors List, among many others.
As a writer, Andruetto stands out for her great awareness and concern
to preserve the literary experience as an exercise of freedom that no
one should be excluded from. Therefore, she has been linked to
reading in all its forms: for over thirty years she has fought for the
right for childrens literacy, training teachers in promoting reading
and creative writing, helping to structure local and national literacy
plans such as PROPALE (Reading Program/ University of Crdoba)
as well as teacher capacitating. At the same time, she was one of
the founders of CEDILIJ (Dissemination and Research Center of
Childrens Literature in Cordoba).
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MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
CONFERENCIA MAGISTRAL 3: MASTER CONFERENCE 3:
LA LITERATURA COMO UNA CASA LITERATURE AS A
HOSPITALARIA HOSPITABLE HOME
Que todos signifique todos, pero qu
es todos?
Por debajo de su obra
Caa la nieve, y la noche se vena encima. Era
el da de Nochebuena. En medio del fro y de la
oscuridad, una pobre nia pas por la calle con
la cabeza y los pies desnuditos. Tena zapatos
cuando sali de su casa; pero no le haban
servido por mucho tiempo. Eran unas zapatillas
enormes que su madre ya haba usado, tan
grandes, que la nia las perdi al atravesar
la calle... La nia caminaba, pues, con los
piececitos desnudos que estaban rojos y azules
del fro; llevaba en el delantal, que era muy viejo,
algunas docenas de cajas de fsforos y tena en
la mano una de ellas como muestra. Era un mal
da: ningn comprador se haba presentado, y
la nia no haba ganado ni un centavo... aqu el
comienzo de La pequea vendedora de fsforos.
Le por primera vez el nombre de Andersen en
la tapa de un libro troquelado con ilustraciones
salpicadas de brillantina, una de aquellas
adaptaciones de muy baja calidad en las que la
hondura, complejidad y sutileza del escritor dans
haban perdido (por un camino de sucesivas sim-
plificaciones), su riqueza. Pero as y todo, ah
estaban el patito feo, la vendedora de fsforos,
la nia prisionera de sus zapatillas rojas, cuentos
que pareciera que ni necesitamos leer porque los
han ledo por nosotros quienes nos precedieron.
Personajes en absoluta soledad, abandonados
que quieren entrar a la fiesta del mundo aunque
el mundo no ofrezca precisamente una fiesta.
De tan simplificadas eran ofensivas aquellas
adaptaciones, pero no impidieron que mi inters de
nia quedara fijado, como el de tantos otros chicos
y chicas de mi poca, en un aspecto esencial de la
obra de nuestro escritor, tal vez el nico aspecto
que logr sobrevivir a todas las amputaciones y
adaptaciones a las que se vio sometida. Me refiero
a la exclusin, a la expulsin que padecen sus
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
May everyone really mean everyone, but, what
is everyone?
Underpinnings of his work
Snow was falling, and evening was coming. It was
the day of Christmas Eve. Amid the cold and the
darkness, a poor little girl walked along the street
with her head and feet uncovered. She had shoes
on when she left her house; but they had not been
of much use for very long. They were enormous
slippers that her mother had worn. So big they were
that the little girl lost them when she crossed the
street. The little girl walked with her tiny bare feet
red and blue from the cold. She carried a few dozen
boxes of matches in her old apron and had one box
in her hand as a sample. It was a bad day; there
were no buyers, and the little girl had not made
one cent.and so the story of The Little Match
Girl begins.
I read Andersens name for the first time on the
cover of a book crowded with illustrations splashed
with glitter., one of those adaptations of poor
quality in which the depth, complexity, subtlety and
richness of the Danish writer had been lost (due
to a succession of simplifications). But with that
and everything else, there are The Ugly Duckling,
The Little Match Girl, The Red Shoes, stories that
it may seem that we do not need to read because
they have been read to us by those who came
before us. Characters in absolute loneliness,
abandoned wanting to enter into the festivities of
the world even though the world does not exactly
offer a celebration. Those adaptations were so
simplified that they became offensive, but they did
not stop my steady interest as a child and that of
numerous girls and boys of my age, in an essential
aspect of the work of our writer. Perhaps the only
aspect of Andersens works that survived all of
the amputations and adaptations to which they
were subjected is exclusion. By exclusion I make
reference to the expulsion that his characters suffer
and their tremendous necessity for inclusion that
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MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
personajes y a la tremenda necesidad de inclusin
que los habita.
Todos significa todos dice el lema de este
congreso y eso parecen pedirnos (con humillacin,
ruego o grito) la muchacha del mar, el soldadito de
plomo, el patito feo, entre otros cuentos del mayor
escritor dans de todos los tiempos, adaptados y
recortados hasta la casi desaparicin en aquellas
ediciones argentinas de finales de los aos 50
y primeros aos 60. Fuerte identificacin la de
tantos de nosotros con los excluidos de Andersen,
singulares viviendo entre extraos, diferentes en
un mundo de iguales. Quin soy. Dnde estn
los mos. Personajes que, como en el poema
de Salvatore Quasimodo, estn solos sobre el
corazn de la tierra, cisnes en un pueblo de patos,
seres mticos en un mundo humano, pobres de
toda pobreza en un pas helado y mezquino... Como
extraterrestres entre terrestres, sus hombres,
mujeres, animales y nios son arrancados de su
sitio, arrojados a la intemperie, expulsados de
hipotticos parasos, de concretos privilegios.
A qu lugares nos llevan nuestros privilegios,
a que lugares no nos dejan ir?, se pregunta la
poeta y ensayista norteamericana Adrianne Rich.
Pagamos un precio muy alto para disminuir nuestro
contacto con el dolor de los dems; creemos tantas
veces que es mejor no pensar, no saber. Ilusin de
insensibilidad, de auto anestesia que imaginamos
podra protegernos y, sobre todo, podra proteger
a nuestros hijos. Si la literatura nos permite entrar
en el corazn del otro, entonces evitarla nos va a
vayudar a vivir anestesiados. La anestesia en la
lectura se obtiene por un camino de frmulas fijas,
estereotipos que impiden penetrar la superficie de
los textos y de la vida. As, la indiferencia puede
acompaarnos an leyendo. Historias narradas en
un lenguaje amable e inocuo en las antpodas de
lo literario, cuya potencia reside en la posibilidad
de inquietarnos, de conducirnos hacia zonas
inesperadas de nosotros mismos.
Cuando un escritor se sienta a escribir puede que
olvide por un momento las condiciones concretas
de su vida, pero son justamente esas condiciones
las que por mltiples caminos lo han llevado a
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
they feel within.
May Everyone really Mean Everyone! is the motto
of this conference, and this is what we seem to
be asked (with humiliation, begging, or screaming)
by The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier
and The Ugly Duckling among others authored by
the most notable Danish writer of all time, stories
adapted and cut apart until almost disappearing
completely in Argentinean editions published at
the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s.
So many of us identified strongly with Andersens
excluded characters, living alone in a world of
equals. Who am I? Where are mine? Characters
who, as in the poem by Salvatore Quasimodo are
alone on the heart of the earth, swans in a village of
ducks, mythical creatures in a human world, poorest
of the poor in a cold and unfriendly country Like
extraterrestrial beings among earthlings, its men,
women, children and animals are jerked from their
places and thrown to the elements, expelled from
hypothetical paradises of concrete privileges.
The Northamerican poet and essay writer Adrienne
Rich asks: To what places do our privileges take us
to? To what places do they not allow us to go? We
pay a very high price to lessen our contact with the
pains of others; we believe so often that it is better
not to think, to not know. We create an illusion of
insensitivity, of self anesthesia that we imagine can
protect us, and above all protect our children. If
literature allows us to enter into the hearts of others,
it can help us avoid living anesthetized. Anesthesia
in reading is obtained by way of a series of fixed
formulas, stereotypes that prevent penetrating
the surface of the textbooks and of life. This way,
indifference can accompany us even though we
may read. Stories narrated in friendly language and
harmless in the antipodes of literature, with strength
to rest in the possibility to disturb us and take us to
unexpected areas of ourselves.
When a writer sits down to write he/she may
momentarily forget the concrete conditions of life,
but it is precisely these conditions that have for a
multitude of reasons led the author to write as he/
she does. When writing is authentic, it is nurtured
by the experience and vital conscientiousness of
4
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
escribir de esa manera. La escritura, cuando es
verdadera, se alimenta de la experiencia y de la
conciencia vital de quien escribe; slo de ese
modo puede hacer crecer en ella misma y en
quien lee, la percepcin que la une a los otros
para que los otros se vuelvan visibles, dejen
de ser lo que se ha dejado atrs (Rich). No
alcanzan las bonitas palabras ni la frase cuidada
ni la trama a punto para trasmitir la riqueza de
una subjetividad y quien escribe sabe o debiera
saber que el lenguaje opresor puede incluso tener
su engaosa msica. Quien escribe comprende
(y lo comprender tarde o temprano su lector)
que lo que parecen verdades irrebatibles son
construcciones sociales, ventajosas para unos y
perjudiciales para otros y que esas construccio-
nes se pueden poner en discusin. Todo nio o
nia, todo joven, necesita de una comunidad que
lo reconozca, necesita sentir que esa experiencia
a la que puede acceder en la lectura (la de un ser
humano en otro contexto, en otras condiciones
de vida) hubiera podido ser la suya, experiencia y
condiciones por las que podran haberlo premiado
o castigado. Los lectores (adultos o nios) vamos
a la ficcin para expandir los lmites de nuestra
existencia, porque necesitamos acceder
a otras vidas y a otros mundos, ya que las ficciones
son construccin de mundos, instalacin de otro
tiempo y de otro espacio en este tiempo y este
espacio en que vivimos. Construccin de mundos,
artificios cuya lectura o escucha interrumpen
nuestras vidas y nos obligan a percibir otras
vidas. Al escribir y al leer ficciones, se vuelven
palpables las infinitas posibilidades que existen en
cualquier situacin humana y se nos pone ante el
desafo de escapar a la asfixia de los estereotipos,
de perforar el lugar comn para dejar entrar en
esos seres inventados la complejidad de la vida.
Cuando eso se logra, estamos ante un libro que
nos descoloca, un animal completo para decirlo
con el poeta Rodolfo Godino, un libro, en fin,
verdadero como la vida.
En una poblacin mundial estimada en 7000
millones de personas, segn datos del Banco
mundial, 1.300 millones estn por debajo del
umbral de la pobreza, es decir casi dos personas
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
the person who writes it. Only in this way will the
writing grow in itself and in the perception that
unites it to others, so that others become visible, and
leave what they used to be behind (Rich). Neither
beautiful words, careful phrases, nor the effort to
transmit the richness of subjectivity and who writes
it knows, or should know that oppressive language
can have its own deceptive music.
The writer understands (or the reader will understand
sooner or later) that what seem to be irrefutable
truths are social constructions, advantageous for
some and damaging to others, and that these
constructions may be the subjects of discussion.
Every Little girl and boy, every adolescent needs a
community that recognizes him/her, and needs to
feel that the experience that he/she may get from
reading (that of a human being in a different context,
in other conditions of life) can be his/hers, the
experiences and conditions for which he/she may
have been rewarded or punished. Readers (adults
or children) resort to fiction to expand the limits
of our existence, because we need to experience
other lives and other worlds. Works of fiction are
a building of worlds installed in another time and
space, in the time and space in which we live. The
construction of artificial worlds which we read
about, or listen to interrupts our lives and forces
us to perceive other lives. One feels as if one can
almost touch the infinite possibilities that exist in
any human situation by writing and reading fiction.
One is placed before the challenge to escape the
asphyxia of stereotypes, to perforate everyday life
in order to allow the complexity of life to enter into
these invented beings. When this is achieved,
we have a book that is set apart, an animal that is
complete to say it like the poet Rodolfo Godino, a
book, finally true as is life itself.
In a world population estimated to be 7 billion
persons, according to World Bank statistics, 1.3
billion are living below the poverty line, which is
to say we live in a world where almost 2 out of 10
persons dont have the basic necessities covered.
In an unjust world what costs of art are paid for
when it is separated from the misery and wealth of
the society of which it forms a part?
The stories that I write are always an extension of
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MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
de cada diez. O sea que vivimos en un mundo en el
que dos de cada diez personas no tienen cubiertas
sus necesidades bsicas, en un mundo as de
injusto. Qu costos paga el arte cuando se separa
de la sociedad de la que forma parte, la sociedad
cuyas miserias y riquezas lo alimentan? Las
historias que escribo son siempre una extensin
de m mismo, salen de mi vida. Unas veces ms
enmascarada que otras, la vida de cualquier
escritor late por debajo de sus obras, dice el
escritor Agustn Fernndez Paz, aqu presente.
A quienes escribimos, nos produce resquemor la
palabra compromiso, una palabra que, en lo que
respecta a la literatura, ha sido estigmatizada, pero
qu quiere decir comprometerse en literatura?
Cundo una escritura es comprometida? Toda
obra es la aventura de una conciencia dialogando
con el mundo, en busca de una verdad personal,
no dogmtica. En la disfuncionalidad, la opacidad
y el enrarecimiento, un escritor tiene algo que
decirnos sobre una sociedad, un tiempo, una
geografa, una cultura. El arte no tiene sentido
si no considera que se dirige a una sociedad
de la que su discurso se alimenta, dice Griselda
Gambaro, lo que nos recuerda que la obra no
se hace slo con palabras y sin dudas no solo
con palabras est hecha la obra de Andersen.
Alimentados por su complejo de fealdad, por la
pobreza de infancia, el alcoholismo de su madre,
las mltiples carencias y la tremenda necesidad
que tuvo de ser reconocido, alimentados digo-
por esa suma de virtudes y mezquindades que lo
habitaron como a cada hombre o mujer sobre la
tierra, sus cuentos reflejan un punctum muy alto
de exclusin, en ficciones que a casi siglo y medio
de su muerte no dejamos de leer, las ficciones del
escritor cuyo nombre honra este premio mayor
y nos honra. Andersen dedic a su madre, a la
extrema pobreza de su madre, el cuento sobre la
pequea vendedora de fsforos que en la ltima
noche del ao, en la ciudad cubierta de nieve,
enciende de uno en uno los fsforos que no ha
logrado vender, as como No sirve para nada, se
alimenta en el alcoholismo en que la vio desba-
rrancarse para sortear el fro. A veces me siento
como si sacara a los personajes de debajo del
hielo con que la realidad los ha envuelto, pero
quizs ms que otra cosa es a m mismo a quien
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
me, they come from my life. At times more disguised
than others. The life of every writer exists in his
works, says author Agustn Fernndez Paz who
is present here today. To those of us who write,
the word obligation causes us resentment, a word
that in literature has been stigmatized, but what
does it mean to be obligated in literature? When is
writing an obligation? Every work is an adventure of
dialogue with the world, in search of a non-dogmatic
personal truth. In the dysfunctional, the short-sigh-
tedness and scarcity a writer has something to tell
us about a society, a time period, geography or a
culture. Griselda Gambaro states that art has no
sense if it is not directed at a society that is nurtured
by its own language. This reminds us that the work
is not only completed with words and with doubts
just as the Works of Andersen are not done with
just words. Nurtured by the complexity of ugliness
of, infant poverty, the alcoholism of his mother, the
multitude of scarcities in his life, and the tremendous
desire that he had to be recognized, Andersen
was fed by the sum of virtues and unfortunate life
experiences that lived within him, just as every man
and woman on earth. Andersens stories reflect
a very high degree of exclusion. After almost a
century and a half after his death we continue to
read the fictional writings of a man whose name
has brought honor to this major prize and honor
to us. Andersen dedicated the story of The Match
Girl to his mother and the extreme poverty that she
lived with. In the story, about The Match Girl who
during the last night of the year in a city covered
with snow, lights each one of her matches that she
has been unable to sell one by one, just as it is not
good for anything anyway, is nurtured in alcoholism
she found herself falling down in order to handle
the cold. Sometimes I feel like if I could just remove
the characters from underneath the ice that reality
has enveloped them in, that maybe I will find that
I am actually uncovering myself, says the Israeli
writer David Grossman in his book Write In the
Darkness. Today we know that Andersen was a
great writer because looking at oneself, observing
what is more your own, you may see beyond your
conditions and discover something that you have
not yet expressed, or your expression has not yet
found its aesthetic shape.
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MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
estoy desenterrando, dice el escritor israel David
Grossman, en su libro Escribir en la oscuridad.
Hoy sabemos que Andersen es un gran escritor
porque mirndose a s mismo, observando lo
ms propiamente suyo, logr ver ms all de su
condicin hasta descubrir algo que en su tiempo
todava no haba sido expresado o cuya expresin
no haba encontrado an su forma esttica.
Por encima de los sueos
Aunque haca por lo menos diez aos que
trabajaba en y con libros para nios, escuch por
primera vez el nombre de Jella Lepman en 1993,
de boca de Evelin Hhne, mi directora de beca
en la Internationale Jugendbibliotek de Munich.
Sin el trabajo de Lepman escritora, periodista y
activista poltica judo alemana que fund en 1949
la Internationale Jugend Bibliothek de Munich y
la dirigi hasta 1957, que fund el IBBY en 1953
y recibi el primer premio Andersen en 1954, el
campo de la literatura destinada a nios y jvenes
sera algo completamente distinto de lo que
conocemos. En buena parte se le debe a ella que
hoy consideremos a los libros tan necesarios en
la vida de los nios y quizs tambin le debamos
el desafo de pensar que el privilegio de acceder
desde temprano a la literatura escrita no debiera
estar reservado slo a algunos nios de algunos
sectores en la escala social. Necesarios los libros,
especialmente necesario el acceso al arte y la
literatura como derecho inalienable, extendido a
todos nuestros semejantes, en el esfuerzo y la
conviccin en lnea con Antonio Cndido-, de
incluirlos en el mismo catlogo de bienes que
reivindicamos para nosotros mismos. Derecho
de entrega a un universo fabulado cuyo alimento
es indispensable para nuestro psiquismo, porque
as como no es posible tener equilibrio psquico sin
la ensoacin, tal vez no haya equilibrio social sin
la literatura. La lectura y la escritura enriquecen
nuestra subjetividad porque nos ponen frente a
nosotros mismos, nos incitan a preguntas, nos
ayudan a pensar y a sentir, nos ponen en cuestin,
nos permiten acceder a otras experiencias, intentar
comprender otras subjetividades. La exploracin
de una verdad esttica personal es lo que nos
ofrece el arte, por eso la literatura no es el lugar
de las certezas, sino el territorio de la duda y nada
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
Going Beyond Dreams
Even though for at least ten years I had worked in
and with childrens books, I first heard the name
of Jella Lepman in 1993 by way of Evelin Hhne,
the Director of Scholarships at the Internationale
Jugenbibliotek of Munich. Lepman founded the In-
ternationale Jugenbibliotekof Munich in 1949 and
was its Director until 1957. Without the works of
this writer, journalist, and Jewish political activist
who also founded IBBY in 1953, and received the
first Andersen Award in 1954 the field of childrens
literature would be something totally different from
what we know. Mostly, we owe to her the fact that
today we consider books to be so necessary in the
lives of children, and maybe we should challenge
the thought that the privilege of accessing written
literature from a young age should be reserved for
some children from only some of the sectors of
society. Books are necessary; especially necessary
is access to art and literature as an inalienable right
extended to everyone in an effort and a conviction -
in line with Antonio Cndido - to include them in the
same catalog of valuables that we ask for ourselves.
The right of delivery to a fabled universe sustained
by an indispensable nutrient for our sprit, because
it is not possible to have spiritual balance without
harmony, perhaps there can be no social balance
without literature. Reading and writing enrich our
subjectivity because it places us in a position to
view ourselves, it provokes us to question, it helps
us to think and to feel, it puts ourselves in question,
it permits us to allow ourselves other experiences
and try to understand other subjectivities. The
exploration of personal aesthetic truth is what art
offers to us, for that reason literature is not a place
of certainties, but a territory of doubt and nothing
has more anarchy and revulsion than the possibility
of us doubting to confront ourselves in order to
place our certainties in question.
Comprehension of other persons and other peoples
was Lepmans purpose in writing A Bridge of
Childrens Books, the bridge of books and children
that reflects her experience. A pioneer of reading
programs, much of our work is sustained by the
institutions that she founded and promoted until her
death. Right now we are in a place that was derived
7
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
hay ms libertario y revulsivo que la posibilidad de
dudar, de enfrentarnos a nosotros mismos para
poner a nuestras certezas en cuestin.
Comprensin de otras personas y otros pueblos
es lo que intent Lepman con A bridge of
Childrens books, el puente de libros y de nios
que refleja su experiencia. Pionera en programas
de lectura, mucho de nuestro trabajo se nutre de
las instituciones que ella fund e impuls, hasta su
muerte. Estamos ahora mismo en un lugar que se
deriva de lo que ella en su da so y entonces es
aqu donde me gustara recordar sus convicciones,
el lugar que ocupa la literatura en la vida de las
personas y los pueblos, ya que ella supo pronto
que leer al otro ayuda a comprenderlo, tal vez
incluso que pensar en un hombre se parece
a salvarlo, como dijo en uno de sus poemas
verticales Rodolfo Juarroz. Polticamente activa,
consciente de sus privilegios y de sus diferencias,
y de la obligacin de emigrar de muchos pueblos
y personas a raz de la intolerancia de otros,
Lepman no cesa en su propsito de llevar a los
nios alemanes libros de diversos lugares del
mundo de modo que, al entrar en contacto con
ellos, estn mejor preparados para la paz, la
convivencia y la comprensin. Ella entendi que
quien lee la experiencia de un otro podra tal vez
comprenderlo y que en caso de comprenderlo, no
podr hacerle la guerra; que si ese otro se nos
vuelve ms humano, no podremos tan fcilmente
desaparecerlo; que colocados por intermediacin
de la literatura en el lugar de un otro, escritores y
lectores podemos descubrir las semejanzas que
existen entre ese otro y nosotros mismos.
Pero no hablara de escribir sobre otros, sino ms
precisamente de escribir desde otro, intentando
entrar en su punto de vista, en su percepcin del
mundo, en su corazn. Escribir desde un otro
distinto de nosotros (y mirado en profundidad,
todo otro es distinto y es nico) es en primer
lugar atrevernos a pensar como l, a estar por un
momento en su pellejo. El camino que propone la
literatura es un camino de conocimiento de ese
otro y la cosecha que obtenemos en la lectura
consiste en salir de la indiferencia porque al final
de un libro quien escribe y quien lee quedan en
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
from what in her day dreamed of, and it is here and
now that I want to remember her convictions, the
place that literature occupies in the lives of persons
and communities. She knew that reading to another
individual helped that person to understand, and to
believe that thinking of a person is similar to saving
that person, as Rodolfo Juarroz stated in one of
his vertical poems. Politically active, and conscious
of her privileges and her differences, and of the
obligation to emigrate to many different places with
numerous persons due to the intolerance of others
Lepman never ceased in her purpose to take books
to German children from various parts of the world
so that they may enter in to contact with them. The
hope was that they would be better prepared for
peace, living together, and mutual understanding.
She understood that that when a person read about
the experiences of others a better understanding
would be developed and the chances for peace
instead of war were increased. She believed that
if the other became more human it would be more
difficult to eliminate him/her. By placing one in
the position of another in literature both writers
and readers can discover the similarities that exist
between others and us.
But Im not going to talk about writing about others;
however, more precisely I want to talk about writing
from another by attempting to enter into their point
of view, in their perception of the world from the
heart. To write from one different from our own
(and looking profoundly, all others are distinct
and unique) is in the first place where we dare
to think like him, to be in his shoes for a moment.
The direction proposed by literature is a route of
knowledge of the other and the harvest that we
obtain en the Reading consists of getting away from
indifference because at the end of a book the writer
and the reader remain in doubt with a complexity of
reasons, interests, virtues and defects of one who is
different from oneself, they understand that it is not
so easy to not understand their existence.
Joseph Brodsky said I write to be understood;
we write not only in an effort to understand, but
also hoping to be understood in areas in which
we are not yet domesticated, and then I want to
stop myself in the difficulty to understand and
8
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
deuda con la complejidad de razones, intereses,
virtudes y defectos de un otro diferente de
s, comprenden que ya no sera tan sencillo
desentenderse de su existencia. Escribo para ser
comprendido dijo Joseph Brodsky; escribimos
no slo intentando comprender sino tambin
anhelando ser comprendidos en esas zonas an
no domesticadas del nosotros, y entonces aqu
quisiera detenerme, en la dificultad de comprender
y en la importancia de transitar, en la lectura y en la
escritura, esa dificultad. Quisiera recordar que una
parte importante de nuestra experiencia lectora
proviene de la incomprensin, no comprendemos
del todo eso que vamos leyendo y
entonces eso mismo, intentar comprender, provoca
el esfuerzo de transitar la lectura de un libro; as es
como hemos estado viajando los lectores, de un
libro a otro, desde aquellos lejanos das de infancia
hasta estos das de hoy. Entonces un buen libro es
quizs un libro que nos propone esa dificultad. Esto
viene a cuento porque muchos libros editados hoy
para nios y jvenes estn escritos en lenguaje
y asuntos simplificados al extremo, en lnea con
lo oficial, lo congelado, lo esperable, evitando y
evitndonos pensar. Leer es aprender a entrar en
la vida y en la lengua, as la literatura nos ofrece
su misterio porque permitindonos entrar en un
otro diverso, incluirnos en su mundo e incluirlo
en el nuestro, nos abre a nuevas experiencias de
contacto con el sufrimiento, el asombro, el dolor,
el regocijo o la maldad a la vez que nos ofrece la
curacin de esos sentimientos porque como dice
Grossman los libros son el nico lugar donde
pueden coexistir las cosas y su prdida. Una
vez que las palabras pasan por el cuerpo y por
el alma de quien escribe pueden pertenecerle ya
al lector, es decir pueden ofrecer el ingreso a un
mundo en lenguaje privado, no oficial. Pero para
eso, no debiramos olvidar que el lenguaje es un
vehculo, casi dira como el agua, trasmisor de
una corriente interna que va desde la subjetividad
de quien escribe a la de quien lee y que ese
lenguaje necesita de trasparencia suficiente
como para conducir hacia el mundo que se narra
y de opacidad indispensable como para abrirse a
mltiples sentidos. La literatura es generosa con
nosotros, profundamente democrtica porque nos
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
the importance to continue on with this difficulty
in reading and writing. I would like to remember
that one important part of our reading experience
comes from a lack of comprehension, we dont
understand all of that which we read and then we
try to understand and provoke the effort to continue
on with the reading of the book, this is how we
readers have been traveling from one book to
another since those faraway days of our childhood
until today. Then, maybe it is a good book that
places us in a difficult position. This comes with a
cost because many books edited for children and
young people today are written in language and
matters that are simplified to an extreme, in line with
official standards, frozen, predictable, avoiding and
preventing us from thinking. To read is to learn to
enter into life and language, this is the way literature
offers us its mystery because it permits us to enter
into something different where we are included in
that world as well as our own. We are open to new
experiences of contact with suffering, the amazing,
pain, joy or evil at the same time we are offered a
cure for those sentiments because as Grossman
said: books are the only place where things and
their loss may coexist. Once words pass through
the body and the soul of the author they belong
to the reader. That is to say that they can offer
entrance to a world of private language, not official.
However, for this we must not forget that language
is a vehicle, almost like water, a transmitter of an
internal current that goes from the subjectivity of the
author to the reader and that this language needs
sufficient transparency in order to transfer to the
world it narrates, and an indispensable turbulence
so as to open multiple senses. Literature is generous
with us, profoundly democratic because it allows
us to enter its universe from our own singularities;
it allows each one of us to find our own pathway
between its letters.
A writer looking for an intelligibly and highly
condensed way to transmit the images he/she is
trying to pursue must lay him/herself out naked to
his/herself and also expose unsuspected aspects of
the human condition. This leads us to think, at least
for a moment, of another way. It places before us
the challenge of trying to understand a situation that
goes beyond ourselves; it proposes that we identify
9
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
permite ingresar a su universo desde nuestra par-
ticularidad, nos permite a cada uno de nosotros
encontrar un camino propio entre sus letras.
Un escritor, buscando una forma inteligible y
altamente condensada para las imgenes que
persigue, desnudndose a s mismo pone al
desnudo aspectos insospechados de la condicin
humana. Nos lleva a pensar, al menos por un
momento, de otro modo. Nos pone ante el desafo
de intentar comprender una situacin que va mas
all de nosotros, nos propone identificarnos incluso
con lo que repudiamos, para obligarnos a mirar
desde otros ngulos, retirndonos los mullidos
almohadones de nuestras sagradas convicciones.
Y si las cosas fueran de otro modo? Slo as
resulta posible perforar la superficie de tantas
versiones superficiales de la vida como nos
llegan a travs de miles de modos de penetracin.
Cmo sera nuestra vida si se nos diera vivir
como ese otro?
En la vida misma
Cada escritor es hijo de su tiempo; nadie
puede crear al margen de las corrientes de
los grandes conflictos histricos y sociales.
Ningn libro puede sustituir la experiencia,
pero ninguna experiencia se basta a s misma;
habr sido insuficiente nuestra educacin si no
leemos tambin libros de poetas y novelistas,
de escritores que han indagado acerca de la
ms delicada de las materias: el hombre, sus
sentimientos, su personal manera de reflejar,
sufrir o combatir la realidad. Durante mucho
tiempo Cervantes, Tolstoi, Kafka, continuarn
dicindonos sobre el hombre, cosas que la
sociologa y la psicologa no nos pueden decir,
durante mucho tiempo los poetas nos dirn
cosas sobre la lengua y sus posibilidades de
expresin, de comunicacin y de creacin, cosas
que no podemos pedir a los lingistas. No hay
que olvidar que un nio no es una flecha que va
en una sola direccin, sino muchas flechas que
simultneamente van en muchas direcciones, un
centro de actividades y relaciones, una mano
que juega, una mente que absorbe, un ojo
que juzga. Los nios no crecen en un mundo
separado del nuestro, en un ghetto o bajo una
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
ourselves with something that we may repudiate,
to force us to observe from other angles, leaving
behind the thoughts of our sacred convictions.
And if things were a different way? Only this way
is it possible to perforate the surface of so many
superficial versions of life and how they come to us
by thousands of ways of penetration. How would
our lives be if we lived as this other one?
In Real Life
Each writer is a child of his/her time; no one can
create on the fringes of the mainstream of the
great historical and social conflicts. No book can
be a substitute for experience, but no experience
is enough on its own; our education has been
insufficient if we have not read the books of poets
and novelists, of writers who have investigated the
most delicate of subjects; man and his sentiments,
his personal manner of reflex ion, suffering or
fighting against reality. Over a long period of time
Cervantes, Tolstoy, and Kafka continued to tell us
about humankind, things that the sociologist and
psychologist could not tell us, for a long time poets
told us things about language and its possibilities
of expression, communication and creation, things
that we could not ask of linguists. It should not be
forgotten that a child is not like an arrow that goes
in only one direction, but many arrows that simulta-
neously travel in many directions, a center of activity
and relationships, a hand that plays, a mind that
absorbs, an eye that judges. Children do not grow
up in a world separate from ours, in a ghetto or
under a crystal dome, books destined for children
are not books out of time, there is not one problem
in the present that children are not sensitive to. The
books for the children of our century cannot pretend
that the century does not exist and does not pass in
a disturbing manner, in our surroundings are some
ideas that Gianni Rodari included in his essay
Imagination in Childrens Literature. In 1984 just
as the Argentinean dictatorship was losing power
a group of women who studied literature formed a
center in Cordova directed at children and young
people. Within the framework of the center was
the magazine called Piedra Libre (Free Stone). In
the second issue of that magazine we were able to
reproduce Rodaris essay, courtesy of Perspectiva
Escolar and the Rosa Sensat Teachers Association.
10
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
campana de cristal, los libros destinados a los
nios no son libros fuera del tiempo, no hay ni
un solo problema del presente al que los nios
no sean sensibles. Los libros para los nios
de nuestro siglo no pueden aparentar que el
siglo no existe y que no transcurre, tumultuoso,
a nuestro entorno, son algunas de las ideas
que Gianni Rodari incluy en su ensayo La
imaginacin en la literatura infantil. Fue en el ao
1984, apenas terminada la dictadura en Argentina
cuando con un colectivo de mujeres provenientes
de estudios de letras formamos en Crdoba un
centro de literatura destinada a nios y jvenes
y, en el marco de dicho centro, la revista Piedra
Libre. En el segundo nmero de aquella revista
pudimos reproducir, por gentileza de Perspectiva
Escolar y la Associaci de Mestres Rosa Sensat,
aquel ensayo, dando de ese modo a conocer por
primera vez su pensamiento en Argentina, un
pensamiento al da de hoy muy arraigado en el
trabajo sobre escritura creativa que se hace en mi
pas. La importancia del desarrollo del imaginario
y el trabajo en pos de la inclusin, son algunos
de los caminos que Rodari transit a partir de su
experiencia con chicos refugiados. Su fecunda
escritura, nueva entre los nios de hoy, no cesa
de leerse, como lo demuestran las reediciones
recientes de sus libros, pero es en su lugar de
maestro que quisiera traerlo aqu, como quisimos
llevarlo a los maestros argentinos, en aquellos
aos de mi iniciacin. El autor de Fbulas por
telfono, Los negocios del seor gato, Los
enanos de Mantua y Las aventuras de Antoito
el invisible, que comenz su trabajo docente como
tutor en casa de una familia juda que haba huido
de Alemania y viva en Sesto Calende, estuvo en
contacto temprano con la necesidad, el dolor, la
exclusin. Las reflexiones que a partir de esas
experiencias anot en su Quaderno della fantasa,
fueron la base de lo que treinta aos ms tarde
sera la Gramtica de la fantasa/ Introduccin
al arte de inventar historias, el ensayo en el que
explor las leyes de la invencin, para ponerlas a
disposicin de padres, bibliotecarios y maestros.
Aunque el romanticismo lo haya rodeado de
misterio..., el proceso creativo es inherente a la
naturaleza humana, y est al alcance de todos,
dijo quien confiaba en el poder de liberacin que
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
This was the first time Rodaris thoughts had been
published in Argentina, thoughts that today are
rooted in the works of creative literature done in my
country. The importance of the development of the
imagination and work in favor of inclusion, are some
of the roads that Rodari chose beginning with his
experiences with refugee children. His rich writing,
new among children of today, does not cease to be
read as demonstrated by the recent reprinting of his
books, but it is his place as a teacher that I would
like to bring here, just as we wanted to bring him to
our Argentinean teachers during those years when
I was just getting started. The author of Telephone
Tales, Mr. Cat In Business, The Dwarfs of Mantua,
and The Adventures of Tonino The Invisible began
his work as a teacher and tutor in a Jewish household
with a family that had escaped Germany and lived
in Sesto Calende. He had contact early on with
unfulfilled needs, pain, and exclusion. Beginning
with these experiences he recorded his thoughts
in his Notebook of Fantasy and they were the
foundation for what thirty years later would become
The Grammar of Fantasy/An Introduction To the Art
of Inventing Stories. The essay explored the rules
of invention and made them available to parents,
librarians and teachers. Even though romanticism
is surrounded by mystery.the creative process is
inherent in human nature, and is within the reach
of everyone said he who trusted in the liberating
power of words.
Son of a worker and a craftsman baker, orphaned
by his father at a very young age, teacher of German
children that fled the Nazis, the life of Rodari was his
work as a pedagogue, noting the phrase of Agustn
Fernndez Paz who spoke about each teacher on
earth who is conscious of his/her responsibilities.
Finally, is this; the awareness of life, that which
unifies the writer and the teacher who received the
Andersen Award and said fantasy serves to explore
reality and to explore language.to see what
happens when words are put against one another.
By way of this route our writer imagined children
who could explore words to open up the world,
read it, narrate it and modify it, provoking discomfort
when realizing what is personal and different, to
resist domestication by accepting what makes no
sense, and conscious that underneath this lack of
11
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO
puede alcanzar la palabra.
Hijo de una obrera y un artesano panadero,
hurfano de padre desde muy nio, maestro de
nios alemanes que huan del nazismo, la vida de
Rodari est debajo de su trabajo como pedagogo,
extendiendo aquella frase de Agustn Fernndez
Paz que mencionaba al comienzo, a cada maestro
sobre la tierra consciente de su hacer. Finalmente
es eso, la vida a conciencia, lo que unifica al
escritor y al docente que, al recibir el Premio
Andersen, dijo que La fantasa sirve para explorar
la realidad y para explorar el lenguaje..., para ver
qu resulta cuando se oponen las palabras entre
s. Por ese camino, nuestro escritor imagin nios
que pudieran explorar la palabra para abrirse al
mundo, leerlo, narrarlo y modificarlo; incit al
desacomodo, a percibir lo personal y lo diferente,
a luchar contra la domesticacin aceptando el
sinsentido, consciente de que bajo ese sinsentido
apareceran sentidos nuevos, inesperados.
Que todos signifique todos es el lema de este
congreso que busca reflexionar en torno al lugar
de la lectura en la construccin de una cultura
incluyente, la creacin desde la diversidad y la
diferencia y los modelos, estrategias y prcticas
de inclusin as como los mecanismos de
exclusin en la promocin de la lectura, por lo
que he pensado en compartir este repaso por tres
figuras de la literatura para nios que llegaron a
m en distintos momentos de vida y que desde sus
distintos lugares me han hecho girar en torno a
centros de atraccin/rechazo, inclusin/exclusin.
Pero qu significa todos en lo que a la literatura
se refiere, cuando la literatura implica siempre
una mirada singular sobre un asunto tambin
singular? Pues creo que es justamente ah, en la
intensa mirada a lo singular donde puede nacer la
metfora de un todo que vaya ms all de lo que
estamos dispuestos a ver. El debate social, los
pobres, los que discriminan o son discriminados,
los que no tienen memoria, la violencia familiar y
social, las guerras y dictaduras de todas partes y
tantos otros asuntos son temas de la literatura,
a condicin de que haya en su tratamiento una
intensa mirada singular sobre una circunstancia
y una subjetividad tambin singulares, porque la
ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA
sense unexpected new senses appear.
May Everyone Really Mean Everyone is the motto
of this conference which purpose is to reflect on the
place of reading, in the construction of an inclusive
culture, the creation of diversity, differences and
models, strategies and practices of inclusion
as well as the mechanisms of exclusion in the
promotion of reading. For these reasons I chose
to share this review of three literary figures for
children that came to me at various moments of
my life and from their distinct locations have caused
me to examine my thinking with respect to centers
of attraction/rejection, inclusion and exclusion. But,
what does everyone mean as it refers to literature,
when literature always implies a single glance at a
matter that is unique. I believe that it is right there
that an intense look at what is original is where
the metaphor everyone; may go beyond that
which we are willing to see. The social debate, the
poor, those who discriminate or are discriminated
against, those who have no memory, family and
social violence, wars and dictatorships, along with
so many other matters are themes of literature, a
condition in which there has been an intense and
unique look at a circumstance, a new subjectivity,
because literature in order to be useful (to use a
word that goes against its essence) should remain
useless, its disfunctionality preserved as a treasure.
Since its inception, from the beginning of time she
looked at human uniqueness, at the fight to be
human among what is, and what it wants or could
be. She looks for truth that does not begin or end
in words. To achieve this truth not only of words,
resist the official of a language and of society. Fight
against the homogenization of speeches, we are
invited to be persons who think and feel as an
individual. In closing, that which Rodari taught us
one day, we practice the habit of make believe to
travel to the heart of humankind.
12
MARA TERESA ANDRUETTO ARGENTINA / ARGENTINA

literatura para ser til (para usar una palabra que

va contra su esencia) debe conservarse intil,
debe preservar como un tesoro su disfunciona-
lidad. Desde que existe, desde el comienzo de
los tiempos ella mira en lo humano singular, en la
lucha de un ser humano entre lo que es y lo que
quiere o puede ser. Ella busca una verdad que ni
empieza ni termina en las palabras. Para lograr
que esa verdad no sea slo de palabras, lucha
contra lo oficial de una lengua y de una sociedad.
Lucha contra la homogenizacin de los discursos,
nos invita a ser personas que piensan y sienten de
una manera propia. En fin, aquello que Rodari un
da nos ense: entrenarnos en el vicio de fabular
para viajar hacia el corazn del hombre.

Andricain, Sergio y Antonio Orlando Rodriguez. Fernndez Paz, Agustn: La realidad y la fantasa son un continuo
http://www.cuatrogatos.org/show.php?item= 621

Cndido, Antonio. El derecho a la literatura. http://es.scribd.com/doc/79984103/El-Derecho-a- La-Literatura

Grossman, David. Escribir en la oscuridad. De Bolsillo, 2011.

Lepman, Jella. A Bridge of Childrens Books: The Inspiring Autobiography of a Remarkable Woman (Die Kinderbuchbrcke, 1964).
Dublin: The OBrien Press, 2002; 168 pp.; traduccin al ingls de Edith McCormick. ISBN: 0-86278-783-1.

Pavese, Cesare. Il mestiere di vivere. Giulio Einaudi editore, Torino, 1952.

Piglia, Ricardo. Luz, critica, accin. RADAR, 16.9.12

Quasimodo, Salvatore. Y enseguida anochece y otros poemas. Hyspamerica ediciones argentina, Buenos Aires, 1983

Rich, Adrianne. Sangre, pan y poesa. Prosa escogida 1979-1985 Icaria- Antrazyt

Rodari, Gianni. Revista Piedra Libre del CEDILIJ (Ao 1, No 2; Crdoba, Argentina, septiembre de 1987). Perspectiva Escolar
Associaci de Mestres Rosa Sensat. Barcelona, Espaa Web: http://www.rosasensat.org

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